After a few days of enduring the awful details of the fatal crash that claimed the life of Dallas Cowboy Jerry Brown, we should all remember that this very public drama plays out every day in the lives of less famous people whose lives are just as shattered by drunken driving.

The wheels of justice will turn for Brown’s teammate and close friend Josh Brent, who is out on bond, but living in an arguably worse prison than the one he will probably soon occupy — the inescapable cell containing the guilt of killing a friend.

Our first prayers and concerns point properly to the family and friends of the young man we have lost. Brown was turning heads as a linebacker on the practice squad, working toward a possible slot on the active roster. Now he will be laid to rest in his native St. Louis on Saturday.

The apparent killer is a monster we seem to have no idea how to combat. We talk a good game about cracking down on DWI, but we rarely do. What would it even look like if we were serious about addressing a behavior that takes more than one life every hour?

Would we station police officers in the parking lots of every bar and club, ready to act on the first evidence of wobbly patrons? Would we require breathalyzer interlocks on every car?

We have never seriously entertained such intrusive remedies, and we probably never will. Vast portions of public reaction to this tragedy have been tempered by individual recollections of the last time most of us were probably not quite fit to drive. That same “there but for the grace of God” phenomenon will keep us from accepting virtually every directly preventive measure.

So we are left to hope that deterrents become harsh enough to have an effect. But even there, our seriousness is disproved by constant stories of deaths at the hands of drivers with multiple DWI convictions.

Brent himself had spent a month behind bars in 2009 following a drunken-driving conviction in college. This newspaper’s Tuesday editorial found a quote from him at that time that reaches across the years to break our hearts even further: “You get a new outlook on life and some of the mistakes I’ve made,” he said. “You realize a lot of things, how naive and dumb you can be sometimes.”

Such clarity and humility from a 21-year-old. But at 24, had the lifestyle excesses of the NFL hijacked his good sense as they have so many other young athletes? That’s impossible to know. Today, across America, dozens may die, victims of drivers leading lives of every type.

The Cowboys have no comment on Brent’s future with the team, and that is only right. These days need to be about Jerry Brown, not fan reaction to a decision to cut ties with Brent.

But that decision must surely come. As we wish for peace for the family of Jerry Brown, we should also pray for Josh Brent, who endures a pain today that we cannot imagine.

Our empathy cannot cloud the necessity of delivering messages designed to stop drunken driving before it starts. Our justice system can deliver such a message with the certainty of long imprisonment. And in the specific world of athletes prone to delusions of invincibility, the message must come from teams who make it clear that a decision to endanger the lives of others is likely to end their careers.

If that message reaches into the dark corners of loud clubs where some of these tragedies are born, maybe there can be fewer lives lost in DWI crashes, and fewer lives shattered by the pain of causing them.

The Mark Davis Show airs from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays on KSKY (660 AM). He can be reached at themarkdavisshow@gmail.com.